Government officials from Washington to London insist that there are no known specific or credible terror threats tied to next month's Olympic games in London. Nonetheless, authorities on both sides of the Atlantic are urging vigilance.

President Barack Obama met last week with his national security team to talk about preparations for the Olympic games as well as this week's Fourth of July holiday. After the meeting, the White House issued a statement saying that "The President directed all to ensure we are doing everything possible to keep the American people safe and to continue close cooperation on the Olympics with our British counterparts," according to National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor.

In a speech just last week, the head of Britain's MI5 domestic security service talked a little more specifically about the current threat environment. Jonathan Evans told the audience at a defense and security lecture that "The games present an attractive target for our enemies and they will be at the center of the world's attention in a month or so. No doubt some terrorist networks have thought about whether they could pull off an attack. but the games are not an easy target and the fact that we have disrupted multiple terrorist plots here and abroad in recent years demonstrates that the UK as a whole is not an easy target for terrorism." FULL POST

Prosecutors told jurors the defendant's journal showed he had intended to cause violence and that he believed "it is time for jihad." The government said Aldawsari had a target list that showed he considered trying to blow up hydroelectric dams and nuclear power plants. His list also included the Dallas home of former president George W. Bush. FULL POST

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the first in a series of opinion articles about national security by participants in the upcoming Aspen Security Forum. Security Clearance is a media sponsor of the event which is taking place from July 25-28 in Aspen, Colorado.

To end World War II, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin demanded an unconditional surrender from the Nazis. But there will be no such surrender from al Qaeda. The group is not a state that is capable of entering into such an agreement, even if it wanted to do so, which seems highly unlikely.

So we are left with a choice: We can continue fighting al Qaeda indefinitely and remain in a permanent state of quasi-war, as has already been the case for more than a decade now.

Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) and Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) write in CNN's Opinion page why they oppose indefinite military detention. Udall, who serves on the Senate's intelligence committee, and Smith, who is the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services committee, are vocal opponents of the authority that was included in the defense authorization bill.

As Udall and Smith note, their opponents continue to strongly resist proposals to have civilian law enforcement take the lead in these terror cases:

Some, however, have argued that this approach to national security - one that involves law enforcement and not solely the military - is tantamount to ceding ground to al Qaeda. This argument, designed to paint members of Congress as "soft on terror," is wrong.

Udall and Smith argue that as far as terrorists are concerned, what happens to them once they are caught is not really an issue:

The question of civilian versus military authority is irrelevant to our enemies. It is, however, incredibly important to protecting Americans' constitutional rights and freedoms while still allowing us to effectively fight terrorism.

The agency was sued eight years ago to provide details of certain communications describing the use of waterboarding and other direct intelligence-gathering methods of foreign terror suspects. A three-judge panel from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled "intelligence methods" are not subject to a Freedom of Information Act request from the lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union.

"We give substantial weight to the government's declarations, which establish that disclosing the redacted portions of the (secret memos) would reveal the existence and scope of a highly classified, active intelligence activity," said the judges. FULL POST

Two suspects who appeared in court in Cook County, Illinois, on Sunday are not believed to be part of an alleged terror plot in Chicago during the NATO summit, prosecutors said Sunday.

Instead, charges against the two arose from "related investigations," authorities said.

Three men had previously been charged in the NATO plot, with authorities saying they planned to target President Barack Obama's campaign headquarters, the home of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and several other law enforcement and financial sites.

The three men charged in the NATO plot were identified as Brian Church, 22, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Jared Chase, 27, of Keene, New Hampshire; and Brent Betterly, 24, who told police he resides in Massachusetts, authorities said. An Illinois judge set bail at $1.5 million for each. FULL POST

The bomb technology is aimed at targeting the U.S., according to the source.

Although the group has not yet succeeded in any of their bomb plots against the U.S., there are several bomb makers and a group of would-be suicide bombers inside the group, which operates out of rudimentary training camps in southern Yemen. FULL POST

Three months before he was killed by a U.S. drone strike, Fahd al Quso, one of al Qaeda's top operatives in Yemen, spoke at length to a local journalist. He was asked why al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula had stopped plotting against the United States. Was it because all efforts were devoted to an internal project?

"The war didn't end between us and our enemies. Wait for what is coming," al Quso replied.

It seems al Quso, the head of the group's external operations, wasn't bluffing after the recent discovery of a device designed to be carried aboard an airliner by a suicide bomber without detection.

U.S. officials describe the device as an evolution of the bomb smuggled aboard a U.S.-bound plane on Christmas Day 2009 by a young Nigerian, Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab.

The Obama administration's struggle over how to handle the prisoners and prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, enters a new chapter Saturday when a military judge there will convene an arraignment for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other men for their alleged roles in the September 11 terrorist attacks.

It could be a routine military commission hearing, with charges being read and pleas being entered, or it could be the latest act of a legal and political free-for-all.

"I've had conversations with other people who believe the circus is going to begin with the first appearance," said Rear Adm. Donald Guter, who once served as the Navy's top lawyer. FULL POST

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CNN's Security Clearance examines national and global security, terrorism and intelligence, as well as the economic, military, political and diplomatic effects of it around the globe, with contributions from CNN's national security team in Washington and CNN journalists around the world.